Carabao Cup: Why Manchester United Cannot Face Man City or Liverpool
- The Carabao Cup will have some changes when the draw for the third-round fixtures is done on August 28
- The draw will be done immediately after Newcastle United's match against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground
- YEN.com.gh explains why Manchester United cannot face Manchester City or Liverpool due to changes in competition schedules
This week is set to be laden with draws as clubs get to know their opponents in various cup competitions across Europe.
The Champions League, Europa League, Conference League and Carabao Cup will have their draws for specific rounds of the competitions.
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New Champions League format
There has already been much talk about the new Champions League format and the new draw system.
The new format will affect how the Carabao Cup draws are done going forward. The Carabao Cup returned this week, with English clubs not involved in European fixtures this season playing.
Brighton, Everton, Leicester, Fulham, and Crystal Palace all bagged wins, while Wolves, Southampton, Brentford, West Ham, Newcastle United, and Nottingham Forest are all in action on Wednesday night.
When is the Carabao Cup draw?
The seven clubs in Europe this season will join the competition from the third round. The draw will be done immediately after the last game on Wednesday, August 28, but there are a raft of changes.
Carabao Cup third-round draw
This round features 32 teams. Teams in the Champions League(Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Aston Villa) cannot be drawn against teams in the Europa League (Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur). This means Manchester City cannot be paired with Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur. Why?
Why Man United cannot face Liverpool in Carabao Cup
Due to the aforementioned changes in the Champions League, the league phase will be dragged from eight game weeks to 10 due to an increase in the number of teams.
The league phase will begin on September 17 - the same date some teams will play in the Carabao Cup.
So, as MEN reports, the Champions League and Europa League teams cannot be drawn together because Europa League teams will play their third-round matches on September 17 and 18.
The roles will then be reversed the following week (September 25), when the Europa League teams will honour their European matches as the Champions League teams play the Carabao third-round matches.
Who can Chelsea face in the Carabao Cup?
Despite being in Europe, Chelsea are not included in this draw because their Conference League participation (provided they get past Servette) won't affect the Carabao Cup dates. The League phase of Europe's third-tier competition will begin in October.
Who won the Carabao Cup last season?
Liverpool are the defending champions after beating Chelsea in last season's final thanks to a late Virgil Van Dijk goal.
How new Champions League draw will work
YEN.com.gh has also broken down how the Champions League draw will be conducted.
The use of ex-players to draw balls from specific pots has been partially done away with.
The process is set to be computerised until every team gets eight different opponents in the league phase.
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Source: TUKO.co.ke
